Electrochemical activities of pristine graphene and its derivatives are subjected to edge/basal plane doping, and functionalization [1-3]. Aside from the prevailing basal/edge plane effect, functionalization and doping of graphene highly influence the physicochemical and electrochemical properties of graphene and graphene oxide (GO) [3]. Hence, various graphene derivatives, particularly doped with heteroatoms (e.g., N, F, Cl, B and S), have been widely explored for metal-free electrocatalysis, supercapacitor, and battery applications [4-8]. Among the doped graphene based nanomaterials, F-doping has gained great attention because of unique properties such as its high temperature resistance and enhanced electrocatalytic activity [9-11]. Fluorine has a higher electronegativity than carbon, which may result in different bonding characteristics such as ionic, semi ionic and covalent [12]. In addition, the electronic structure of fluorinated graphene may be altered significantly due to its dual characteristics: (i) electron-withdrawing nature arising from the strong electronegativity of F; and (ii) electron donating nature from the lone-pair electrons [11]. Therefore, fluoro-graphene derivatives have been widely explored for a variety of applications such as batteries [5,13], biomedical devices [14], capacitors [15], and catalyst support [11]. Typically, fluorinated graphene is synthesized based on direct gas fluorination and plasma fluorination [10,12,16], which, however, require tedious multiple steps, harsh experimental conditions, and high energy consumption.
In the present study, we have demonstrated a facile one-pot approach for the synthesis of FGO from graphite. The resulting FGO was systematically characterized using field-emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM), X-ray diffractometer (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Further, we have investigated the electrochemistry of FGO, and a distinct behavior was observed when FGO was used in comparison to GO for heavy metal ion stripping.